What We Did

The Episcopal Church of New Hampshire March 2015 Mission Trip, led by The Rev. Mark Pendleton,
rector of Christ Church Exeter, consisted of 20 people, including members of Christ Church Exeter,
St. John's Portsmouth, Good Shepherd Nashua, and St. Paul's on-the-green, Norwalk, Connecticut.

A preliminary mission trip in early 2014
identified clean water as the biggest issue facing the people of
Cuba today.
Thanks to a Millennium Grant from the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire,
together with generous support from St. John's Portsmouth and many individuals,
we were able to purchase four water systems, two using micro-filtration, and two using UV light.
We chose to bring both technologies after considerable debate over the merits of each.

See the page
useful links
for a complete description of these systems, including vendors and part numbers.

In addition to the water systems, we brought a considerable amount of pharmacy items
such as over-the-counter medications and personal care items such as toothbrushes.
Such items are also very difficult to obtain in Cuba.

From Miami, we used the services of
Marazul Travel,
whose own charter airline, World Atlantic, charges $2 per pound over the allowed 44 pounds per person.
This is typical of charters to Cuba.
This charge was included in our budget calculations, and came to about $1500.

Domestic flights to Miami calculate checked baggage fees differently, typically
(for example, American Airlines) charging $25 for the first bag, $35 for the second, and $150
for a third checked bag, with a $100 charge for each checked bag over 50 pounds.
Therefore, each person was assigned only two pieces of checked luggage, and each item
was kept well under the 50 pound limit.
Individual group members were responsible for baggage charges to Miami.

We spent most of our time in Cardenas, where we stayed in the
Centro Cristiano de Reflexión y Diálogo-Cuba,
which we commonly referred to as the "Ecumenical Center."
It was a clean, comfortable place with individual rooms, private baths,and bottled water.

We took most of our meals at San Francisco de Asís Episcopal church in Cardenas,
which was also the location of our first water system installation.

Scroll down for details about both the UV and filtration system installations.

Installing a Viqua UVMAX D4-Plus System

Much of the plumbing associated with the UVMAX system was pre-assembled before shipping,
which greatly facilitated installation.
Also, the controller and other electrical components were mounted to
a piece of plywood so that only one item (the piece of plywood)
needed to be mounted to the wall.
(For shipping, the controller was removed from the plywood and double-wrapped in bubble wrap.)

Wires were bundled together so they did not look suspicious to airport security.

Many of the newer buildings in Cuba are concrete block construction,
so an impact drill with a masonry bit is essential.
Very few tools are available in Cuba,
so all of the tools we needed were brought with us in our checked luggage.
These were left behind as a donation to the church there.

We were fortunate to be able to hire a local plumber, Juan Carlos,
who, among other things,
had the tools to drill holes large enough for plumbing to pass through the concrete block walls.

In addition to running a pipe to the kitchen, an outside faucet was provided for people
to come and get clean water even when the church was closed.
This faucet was pre-mounted to a piece of plastic to facilitate mounting to the concrete
block wall.

Our UV system installation used only new piping downstream of the system to eliminate concern about
possible pathogens in the existing plumbing.

The entire installation took about 2 hours, thanks to good pre-planning
and the availability of many skilled helpers.

To help others when installing one of these systems,
this is a detailed view of the UVMAX D4-Plus system installed in Cardenas.

The second UV system was packed entirely in one shipping case (Case #2)
for transportation to another part of the island and installation
by others at a later time.

Installing a Living in Faith Filtration System

One of the Living in Faith filtration systems was installed in the Episcopal
church in Bolondron.
As with the UV system, the Living in Faith organization pre-assembled much of the plumbing.
We again used the services of Juan Carlos, who has installed many of these before.
The entire process took about two hours.

We made several modifications to the Living in Faith system.
We added an additional pressure gauge to better monitor when the filters need to be changed,
we added a pressure relief valve (shown under the pressure gauge to the left of Juan Carlos' hands)
to make it easier to unscrew the filter housings,
and we included a filter housing handle (shown hanging from the gauge on the far left)
to also help with unscrewing the filter housings.

Unlike the UV systems, which are installed at the point of use, the filtration systems are installed
after the pump between the cistern and the roof-top tank. Therefore,
water is diverted on its way to the tank, filtered, and then returned to the pipe
leading to the tank.
Thus, water to the entire building is filtered.
After installation, bleach is used to kill any pathogens in the tank and existing plumbing.

The second filtration system was delivered to the Episcopal church in Coliseo,
and funding was provided to install a cistern and pump (which they did not already have),
and to hire Juan Carlos to return and install the system.

The need for such a system in Coliseo is particularly important because
the water supply system in the town is turned off for 12 hours each night,
allowing pathogens to enter the water supply.